I’m creating a winter gallery wall upcycling old picture frames and an outdated canvas for an inexpensive way to decorate my living room for the holidays.
DIY Winter Wall Art Ideas
I wanted to change up my gallery wall that is over my living room sectional for the wintertime. Yes, I could have just made a few clicks and ordered new prints but what is the fun in that!!!
During my online scrolling looking for Christmas ideas for this year, I screenshotted an image on the Pottery Barn website of a cool, slightly modern-looking gallery wall they had created and that is my inspiration for this project.
My first stop was my workshop to see what I had for frames and old canvases that I had stashed down there.
The goal for this project was not to buy a single new thing!!
Over my sectional, I already have a 5 frame gallery wall that I change out each season. The prints I have are from The Poster Store. I’ve worked with them in the past and really love the quality of the prints and the look of their frames; even though they are located in Sweden shipping is super quick.
The plan is to keep some of them and add the new wall art that I am going to make to give this wall a fresh look.
For this project I am making 4 pieces of art:
- Pottery Barn Inspired Abstract Painting
- Framed Sheet Music
- Snowflake Print
- Mini Pinecone Christmas Tree
Painting Your Own Abstract Wall Art
You probably already have an old canvas lying around that’s gone out of style…I have a pile of artwork that is past its expiration date!!!
All I did was give it 2 coats of white acrylic craft paint to cover up the image underneath. By reusing something I already have I’ve saved $15 already on this gallery wall.
For reference, this canvas is 16 x 16 inches.
For me, if I have an image of something in front of me I can usually do a pretty good job of copying it.
The nice thing about abstract art…is that it is abstract!!! So no matter what you can put your own spin on it and there is no wrong way.
The inspirational painting is basically 4 circular shapes that overlap.
Instead of using black, I opted for a forest green acrylic paint shade to blend better with my living room decor.
Framed Christmas Carol Art
In the inspiration photo of the Pottery Barn gallery wall, they had vintage-looking framed letters.
For a more seasonal look, I decided to print out a sheet of Christmas music that I found on this free sheet music website using a piece of cardstock.
Once again I grabbed a picture frame that I already had…behind that music is a picture of my now 22-year-old son when he was 4. I liked how the large mat looks in the square frame with the Christmas carol.
Another option would be to just frame the entire sheet in an 8×10 frame. You would have to trim off the excess of the 8.5 x 11 sheet of copy paper.
Winter Snowflake Art
For the next piece of art for the winter gallery wall, I’m using another old sign. This one is a 9 x 9 square, I really liked the light wood frame.
There were lots of free options for snowflake images on Google. This one I printed from Canva.
Here is one of my favorite tricks for getting a canvas look when I print out my own art at home..I use watercolor paper!!
It has a nice texture to it. You do have to trim it to fit into your printer (I just put a piece of regular copy paper on top of it and trim it that way).
To attach the snowflake to the frame I brushed a coat of Mod Podge onto the picture frame and then pressed the snowflake print in place.
I did let a little of the white picture underneath peek through to mimic a mat.
Pinecone Christmas Tree Art
Now I just needed one small piece of art to even out the new gallery wall. I also wanted to create something that was more 3D and had some texture to it.
So I rummaged through my workshop to see what supplies I could pull together.
What I ended up making was a little Christmas tree made out of mini pinecones.
First I took a small amount of light mocha paint on a paper towel and wiped it over the small 5 x7 wooden craft frame. Although I could have painted the back part of the frame black I just cut out a piece of black paper and glued it in place.
Then I just started making a pyramid with pinecones. 1 at the top, then a row of 2, then 3…you get the idea…all the way to 6 and then I used a pinecone to make the tree trunk at the bottom!!!
Winter Gallery Wall
Here’s all my new DIY wall art! It was fun creating some new pieces to hang in my living room and I loved that all it took was my time!!
It’s always a good idea to add a little black to a big display like this one.
Here’s a better shot of the abstract wall art. It was really easy to do!
The original two large winter prints are flanking the DIY art in the center and I kept one of the smaller prints up there too with the 4 new pieces that I made.
Another Winter DIY Wall Art Idea
For this snowflake wall art, all you need is a large unfinished wood panel and sticks!! It’s a great look that you can keep up all winter long too!
moss wall art
Here’s a great project that you can hang up year-round! Plus, if you love to use natural-looking decor in your home this is the perfect project…and it’s not hard to do either!!!
find free artwork
Do you love free?? Well, I do!! I’m sharing all my resources for printing out free artwork at home. You’ll want to save my resources!!
See your projects featured! If you are inspired by this or any of my other DIY projects I would love to see them and add you to the Reader’s Spotlight gallery. Send a photo to me at jennifer@cottageonbunkerhill.com
xo, Jennifer
Jennifer, I love this idea of creating your on artwork for a gallery wall. It turned out beautiful. I am going to share this in my Sunday newsletter.
Thanks, you are awesome-sauce!!
Love the gallery wall ideas! I want to do one in the entry hall.
That’s the perfect space for you to create one!